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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  December 4, 2012 10:00am-11:00am PST

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international right for the disabled after failing to win the required 66 votes. >> on this vote the yeas are 61, the neas are 36, two-thirds of the as far as present not having voted in the affirmative. >> despite bipartisan support and a dramatic appearance on the senate floor by former leader bob dole, just out of the hospital. >> more than a dear friend, bob remains an authentic hero to millions of his countrymen, someone whose personal example of war time sacrifice was equal, if suf a thing is possible, by his service in this body and is respected wherever people value political courage and civility. >> in the nearly 30 years that i've been here, i think this is the first time i've seen a former majority leader of the united states senate come to the senate floor for a vote and certainly the first time that i've seen it happen when he had every right to be at home at age 89 taking care of his health.
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but that's not bob dole. this is about people. this treaty helps thousands of vets, men and women, who paid the price of devotion to our country with their limbs. >> president obama just now on bloomberg tv on why he hasn't sat down with the speaker to hammer out a budget deal. >> unfortunately, the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. you know, he talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues, but he says he's going to do that by lowering rates and when you look at the math, it doesn't work. >> and what do governors want with the president and house republicans at an impasse over how to avoid the fiscal cliff, a bipartisan group of governors arrives in washington for a meeting. >> our focus today was not to endorse a specific plan nor to dismiss a specific plan, but rather to point out, as gary mentioned, as governors, we think it's important that we have a seat at the table.
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>> flash point serious, secretary clinton in brussels where nato leaders are sending patriot anti-defense missiles to turkey and warning syria of any thought of using chemical weapons. prince william leaves the hospital after visiting kate. she remains hospitalized for severe morning sickness. good day. i'm amount li-- andrea mitchell live in washington. the senate has managed to vote on something, rejected a u.n. treaty to extend rights to the blind and disabled, rights that have been the law of the land here in the united states since 1990. despite an emotional appearance from bob dole just out of walter reed, 89 years old, a passionate advocate for equal rights for the disabled since his first speech on the senate floor in 1969. joining me for our daily fix, kra, managing editor of post politics.com and capitol hill correspondents, nbc's kelly o'donnell and luke russert.
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kelly, to you, because this vote in the senate, john kerry led the way, it was bipartisan, in support. they needed 6 votes. it's a treaty, two-thirds of the senate and it failed. talk to me about all the ramifications here. >> it's not that often andrea, you know this, when votes on the senate floor can draw such powerful emotions and even tears from members of the gallery who attend in the public seats that are not in camera view. but we had that today. there was strong, passionate feelings about this for those in support of the treaty, which essentially as they describe it would encourage the world to live up to the same standard that the u.s. has had these past 20 years and would not allow discrimination against persons with disabilities around the world. and yet, those opponents had concern about the fact it's a u.n. treaty, raised questions about could it give in essence cover to countries that don't do a very good job but could be saying they signed on to this treaty. other questions like it's a lame-duck session, don't do it now, do it later.
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those sorts of arguments against. there were a number of republicans who voted for this joining the democrats, but not enough, because the treaty does require two-thirds. today that meant 66 with one senator not present, and we watched this passion coming out before the vote when bob dole, his wife elizabeth dole, both former senators, were on the floor, dole in his wheelchair and many members of the senate from both parties came over, gestures of goodwill and then when the vote actually happened, of course, dole and his wife kind of moved back off of the senate floor and we watched it unfold. there was one senator, a republican, that initially voted yea and then voted no. there were some of the public advocates, persons in wheelchairs, a former military officer who lost both legs, very emotional about the loss of this. they had believed it could be done. it failed today. there was a lot of emotion,
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really for proponents those against more muted in their opposition but they carried the day. andrea? >> and chris, this is, of course, the backdrop for why things are so difficult to do here in washington. the fiscal cliff, we just heard from the president and with julie anna on bloomberg, his first interview about the latest state of play, and a lot of people are asking why can't they get together? why can't they meet? they were together at the christmas party at the white house last night and there was no real conversation along the sides between the president and speaker. >> right. in the same room but did not talk. you know, andrea, i think you heard in the clip in the opening, president obama is insisting a balanced approach and we've talked about this before, balance is in the eye of the beholder. john boehner would say this is a balanced approach, we're putting revenue on the table as well as
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entitlement cuts. president obama seems to be indicating balance means getting more from the wealthy and likely to mean raising rates. as he said today and prior to today, the math doesn't add up if you simply close loopholes, cap deductions, do those sorts of things. we're sort of where we always have been. it's where we have been for several years at least when it relates to congress and the president simply not being able to resolve what are fundamental differences. we talked about this before the election, andrea. the election was supposed to tell us something about what the american public wanted. president obama did win the election. you know, an event has happened as part of the many months where the public comes down on this. >> luke russert, john boehner did yesterday come out with their proposal, the house proposal. is that a nonstarter or move the ball a little bit?
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>> i would say it's a nonstarter for the white house, but it moves the ball a little bit in the sense it gives us an idea of what the house gop conference would be willing to accept and that is really to put it in place, caps, specific numbers, that could be worked on next year. essentially you're going to bank specific things the white house would give. perhaps an increase in the medicare age. perhaps a change in the cpi in terms of how social security is doled out. the idea that's what the plan would possibly look like. that was a movement more towards the center. as president obama said it's unacceptable. when i was walking over here i spoke to a senior republican senator and he pretty much said look, we accept that eventually these rates on the 250 or above are going to have to go up. we should try to bank something. whether that be something to bring back to our conference saying we lost the 250 or above but we got the medicare age raised. we were able to get significant entitlement reform. that is most likely what some deal is going to look like.
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there is a belief amongst house republicans andrea, that president obama is playing smart politics on this. he's taking this cliff all the way to the edge, the possibility that he's okay with the country going over it, with the idea that he can fracture republicans on the tax issue. remember, republicans have been ability lowering taxes ever since h.w. bush said the read my lips pledge. what they've run on. if he can fracture them and hurt them politically going into 2014 they believe that's what he's doing and why he's trying to draw this out. it's an interesting element besides all we talked about in terms of the monetary values here, the politics of it, absolutely fascinating. >> luke russert, thank you, kelly and chris. joining me is north dakota senator kent conrad chairman of the senate budget committee, someone who has been here, done that, how many years have you gone through these negotiations? >> 26. >> talk about where we stand right now. because the senate -- the house republicans, the speaker, did
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put out their proposal last night and talking again about not raising rates, but handling the revenue side with deductions. here's what erskine bowles told my friend last night. >> i am positive that to get a deal done your' going to have to have higher tax rates on the top 2%. i'm actuallyequally sure $350 b worth of cuts that the president put on the table for health care entitlements, is not going to be sufficient to get the deal done. there's going to have to be compromise. >> compromise, that's a dirty word in washington. senator conrad, what do you think is going to be the outcome? is there going to be a deal? >> i think so. and, you know, it's not that far away. if you took the president's revenue and you took the republican's cuts, made some modifications to them, relatively modest modifications
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to them, you would have an overall package counting what's already been done of over $4 trillion which what is you need to get the country on track. we're starting to edge closer to a position that if you took both sides' positions you would be very close to a reasonable outcome. >> one of the questions the president was asked today, why don't you all get together and sit down at a table and hammer this thing out. why don't they all go to camp david or andrews air force base or some other place where we can't be bothering them and just hammer it out? get rid of the lobbyists, grover and all the rest on all sides, get the aarp people away and sit down and come out on the other end? >> i think that's ultimately what it takes. we've seen that over the years, haven't we? andrews air force base, that agreement, i don't think it would be unreasonable for the leaders to go to camp david and
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stay there until they come back with an agreement. it does take a certain amount of give and take back and forth between the moment is right. i think we're getting close to that moment. >> would you tell the white house the same, that they've got to maybe make the first move to get the speaker and everybody else around the table? >> i think the white house did a very wise thing in terms of laying out what they thought was important to an agreement on the revenue side of the equation. and to say to republicans, you want entitlement savings tell us what they are. they've done that. so now you've got the two positions outlined. that puts us in a position to reach a final agreement. i have recommended to the white house at some point going to camp david or some other location so you get away from the dueling press conferences, because at some point that can create its own dynamic and reduce the chances of getting an agreement. so far i think these discussions
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have been productive and constructive and i think we are stepping closer to the potential for a deal. >> that's the most positive thing i've heard in a long time, senator. score one for the senate budget chairman's approach. quick question about another proposal floated by people like bob rubin, larry summers, other with close ties with the house, peterson and the peterson institute, what do you think of that proposal which goes through $1.8 trillion in new revenue over a decade, raising the top rates to clinton era levels, taxes on cigarettes, alcohol, internet gambling, also obviously some pretty big dramatic cuts on the spending side. is that a start in. >> i thought it has a lot of merit. look, part of what happens in washington is the two sides spend too much time talking to each other and not listening to the other side. once in a while the other side
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actually has a good idea and the truth be told, in a package of this size, we're going to need to take the best ideas of both sides and we're ready now, the country is ready, i believe the people of this country are going to say at the end of the day if we get agreement, gee, i don't like this, that, but it needed to be done and we can dos this. we've done much harder things in the past. we have to in some ways buck up those who are negotiating and tell them hey look, we'll be with you if you do what's right for the country. we may not agree with every detail. do what's right for the country, we will be with you, because it would put america in a preeminent position going forward. it would be a great thing for america. >> senator kent conrad, thank you very much. always good to see you. >> you bet. >> up next, democratic party chair debbie wasserman-schultz, what are the house democrats willing to give up?
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today house democrats trying to demand a vote for middle-class tax cuts. is this an attempt to embarrass the republican majority which has been considering the same thing. debbie wasserman-schultz is a member of the house budget committee and will serve as chair of the democratic national committee and she joins me now. the president endorsed you for another term. congratulations. >> thank you. >> crucial vote. you got the wonderful task of trying again in the next two years to keep the democrats on top and regain the house. how do democrats handle this issue of the budget, taxes and budgets? it's going to be a big piece of how people vote in two years, presumably, as well as other
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races around the country. what is the house democratic position right now on what speaker boehner presented last night? >> well, first of all, an dre dre ya, it's been an honor to serve as the democratic national committee chair at president obama's request for the last 18 months and i'm looking forward to building off the success we had in the election november and helping the president to continue to rebuild this economy from the middle class out. that's really what the crux of this fiscal cliff negotiation -- what these fiscal cliff negotiations are all about. they're about fairness. when the president and congressional democrats talk about the need for balanced approach, to deficit reduction and dealing with the fiscal cliff, we're talking about fairness. we're talking about making sure that if you work hard and play by the rules everyone has a chance to succeed. that the middle class needs certainly tight right now. speaker pelosi and my colleague congressman tim walls, filed a discharge petition today to take
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the bill that we have, that has already passed the senate, that grants certainty to the middle class, to take that bill up and make sure that we can extend the middle class tax breaks before the holidays where we can give -- that's what everyone agrees on. i don't know any republican or democrat that thinks we should let those tax rates -- tax cuts for the middle class expire. so we should pass that now. and then on the things that we're having more trouble agreeing on, we should sit down at the table. the one thing i can assure you, the president and democrats in congress, have consistently said, we're not going to do this -- there is no my way or the highway. we have concrete proposals and compromise on the table, thus far, though, we have republicans who are dug in inning there's no way they're -- insisting there's no way they're going to support increasing rates on the wealthiest americans. >> let me play for you what the president just said to bloomberg tv. >> entitlement reform, i don't
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expect republicans to agree to any plan where they're just [ inaudible ] that entitlement reform would happen. we have to have specific down payments now, recognizing we would have to continue to work to come up with better ideas to reduce health care costs over the long term. >> are you willing to work with the president to go up against aarp to bring house democrats along for specific cuts in some of the most popular programs for your constituents sh. >> the savings that we already know that we can continue to add on that we achieved in the affordable care act, we know -- >> beyond that, you have to go beyond that if you're going to get anything from the other side? >> look, we already had 77 -- $716 billion achieved from the affordable care act which added eight years of solvency. the president in his proposal puts $600 billion in the entitlement savings on the table and we know, look, before we start -- we do not need and
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should not be talking about benefit cuts which is what the republicans put on the table in their letter, until we know that we have looked at every opportunity to achieve savings in the entitlement programs that we have now. we know there's a lot more that can be done. but the republicans for some strange reason are going right to benefit cuts first. speaker boehner's letter today proposing increasing the eligibility age for folks on medicare to 67. we should agree before we even get to the possibility of dealing with anything that approaches benefit cuts, we have to achieve the savings we though we can still ring out of those programs and there are hundreds of billions of dollars in savings which adds years of life to medicare that we know we can achieve. that's a reasonable suggestion. we should start there first if we have to keep going further we should have more informations about that. >> let me quickly ask you about a report that hillary clinton and mike bloomberg talked. he approached her about running for mayor of new york and
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apparently she was not interested in that after his term is up in 2013. state department is not that conversation took place. what do you think of the idea, as democratic chairman? >> i think that -- i have so much respect and admiration for hillary clinton, secretary clinton has done an amazing job as secretary of state. i know she's earned and deserves and looking forward to the well-earned rest she's planning to take and she's an incredible leader who has a tremendous future as a leader of the united states of america. >> well, if you looked at the video that introduced her at the forum on friday night here, a the lot of people are suggesting that well-earned rest is only going to be a prelude to something else down the road and not -- >> we'll give her a little time to rest and then i'm sure that she'll be pressed into service and knowing secretary clinton, i'm sure she doesn't plan to rest very long. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, congresswoman. >> and coming up next, why won't the president sit down with john
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boehner? more from that new interview with president obama, next. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]
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i don't think that the issue right now has to do with sitting in a room. the issue that's relevant is the acknowledgement that if we're going to raise revenues sufficient to balance with the very tough cuts that we've already made and the further reforms in entitlements i'm prepared to make, that we're going to have to see the rates on the top 2% go up. >> the president at least digging in on those top rates, as they continue to face-off in a stalemate with speaker boehner. joining me is mark halperin, senior political analyst and editor at large of "time" magazine. hey, mark. great to see you. let's talk about what has not been discussed enough, some of
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the other consequences if they do nothing which is the sequestration and huge defense cuts which many people, including leon panetta, say would be terribly damaging to our national security. >> right now it's the big thing and people aren't talking about as far as i'm concerned, not just secretary panetta, but the pentagon, the joint chiefs, a lot of republican defense hawks, a lot of the defense contractors say not only would the level of cuts in the automatic sequester portion that goes to defense be harmful to national security, but that it would be a huge hit on the economy because there's so many jobs involved. so my sense is people don't want to talk about that because it would raise a lot of alarms but in some ways is more serious than the tax cuts even though they don't all occur at once. it would sends us down a difficult path. it's already created a lot of uncertainty in the defense world. >> some of the more liberal opponents of the deal on the democratic left, would not mind seeing these defense cuts. >> just as they wouldn't mind in some cases on the left seeing
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the tax increase on everybody so that they can force a vote to lower the rates back only for those americans outside the top 2%, you're right. a lot of liberals would like to see that. this is why the president has leverage. he has some leverage off of his victory in the campaign, but he's got a lot of leverage off of the tax rate issue as well as these defense cuts and the republicans know it. that's why there's much more pressure on them and you hear this from a lot of lobbyists and members of congress quietly, a lot of republican governors, eventually even if we go over the cliff it may be the republicans have less leverage at that point rather than more. >> let's talk about one of the other juicy stories today, which is bob woodward in the style section of the "washington post" reporting for the first time that a prominent republican national security expert who was traveling with david petraeus was dispatched, a fox contributor, and was dispatched by roger ales during the primary season to approach general petraeus, tape of this, because she was apparently recording him
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in this conversation, and over in afghanistan asked him if he would consider running for president and saying that ales would support or rupert murdoch would support, not sure who, apparently according to this tape, petraeus clearly said no and said he wasn't interested in all of these conversations. woodward reached out, of course, to roger ales and he said it was kind of a joke, a wise -- way i have to quote him in the woodward piece. what do you make of him? >> a lot of great woodward stories, as many questions begged as there are answers like who recorded it, who thought it was in their interest to release the recording and what is mcfarland, a respected national security from republican administrations and a long-time fox analyst, what is her side of the story? if you listen to the audio, read the quotes, it doesn't sound like it's a total joke going on there. maybe there's confusion between roger and mcfarland but there are a lot of unanswered questions about it and has people looking at petraeus, as
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well as fox and asking about the various roles they had through the prism of this conversation. >> but at least according to these quotes there's nothing that the general said as he's quoted that is at all out of context with what he has always said publicly, he is not planning to have a political career right now. >> on that point it's consistent. some of the other things he said are racing some beltway eyebrows. >> and speaking of eyebrows, anna winter, one of the biggest contributors being mentioned, of course, there are always people mentioned for these ambassador posts but there is a mention she might be up for the saint james or paris, two of the most prominent posts frequently given to big supporters of the president in the next term and that has been the case in republican and democratic white houses. can you imagine anna wintour as ambassador. it would bring a lot of pizazz and style to either of those
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embassies. >> that's the kind of person who has gotten one of those two slots, typically go to big contributors and people of some prominence and with a social relationship with the president as much as a professional one. so i wouldn't be surprised if she got it. she was extraordinarily involved as you in not just of generic fund-raising for the president but high visibility fund-raising in a city here in new york where some of the money the president had counted on and got in 2008 from wall street, for instance, was not as available to him as it was four years ago. having anna wintour and her community give money was a big deal. i wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she got one of those slots. >> and, in fact, she is this long-time editor and extraordinary person in the great supporters of the metropolitan museum of art, the costume collection and a bill philanthropist as well. and -- >> she's a serious person and she's got great eyebrows. >> well, that's for you to say. we have a big interview
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tomorrow, so we look forward to that with the author of "sasha and emma," a very important new book which has rave reviews in the new york times. we're excited about that. >> i look forward to watching that andrea. >> i hope you do. thanks very much. >> great. >> iran says they have shot down a u.s. drone. a live report coming up next. syria giving the go ahead for patriot missiles to turkey -- missile defenses we should say. tend send me your thoughts on facebook and twitter. @mitchellreports. the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on all purchases, plus a 50% annual bonus. and everyone...but her likes 50% more cash. but i'm upping my game. do you want a candy cane? yes! do you want the puppy? yes! do you want a tricycle? yes! do you want 50 percent more cash? no! ♪ festive. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card
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topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports" prince william returned to the hospital today where his wife catherine is being treated for a severe form of morning sickness. the couple revealed they are expecting a baby. no word on when the duchess might be released. the palace says she is continuing to feel better.
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that time of year again, be flu season upon us and health officials expect it to be a rough one. according to the cdc flu season has peaked at its earliest in nearly a decade. israel's 89-year-old president peres has welcomed his fellow oxygen nare yan the pope to twitter. the 85-year-old pope has the twitter handle pontiff and he did not respond. the pope already has more than 400,000 folers. iranian state media reporting the revolutionary guard shot down a drone after it allegedly violated an iranian air space. the u.s. has denied that claim saying all its drones are accounted for. ali joins me from tehran. again, the white house press secretary jay carney has just said that there is no missing drone. we know that this type of drone is also owned by several of the other gulf states, but we don't know yet who is responsible.
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what are the iranians saying? >> well, andrea, the iranians are saying they captured this u.s. scaneagle drone which entered iranian air space over the persian gulf. the very powerful navy chief of the revolutionary guard said iran used jamming systems to bring down the drone which had taken off from usa aircraft carrier in the region and was on a reconnaissance mission gathering data over iran and state tv showed two revolutionary guard commanders expecting what seems to be an impact scaneagle drone in front of a huge map of the persian gulf and hon it written, we will trammell america under our feet. as you said the u.s. denies any drone had gone missing but we had a similar incident last year where iran had jammed and downed a u.s. drone in the same region. the u.s. denied a drone had been down. after a few days they admitted the drone had been downed by the
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iranians and asked for it back. the iranians wouldn't give the drone back, but they said that they would make a model of it and send it to the united states. they put that model for sale in iran which we managed to get a copy of, to much fanfare. this was on sale all over iran last year. we might see another copy of it soon if it really is a u.s. drone they caught. >> indeed. thank you so much, ali. great to see you. and international pressure on syria is mounting and growing concern that the assad regime is preparing to use chemical weapons. nato decided to sent patriot anti-defense missile systems to turkey and echoed president obama's warning of military action if syria were to use chemical weapons. joining me is former peace negotiator aaron david miller, vice president for the new initiatives at the woodrow wilson center. thanks very much. first of all the pentagon is saying that there is no evidence that they've actually taken steps, but they made some moves according to american intelligence and other intelligence agencies that were worrying an these warnings came
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from hillary clinton, from president obama, and now from n nato. what do we make of this and also the fact that russia has been helpful according to the white house, very helpful, be in trying to persuade syria that this is a red line syria should not cross? >> the noose is tightening. the russians understand the arc on assad is moving south quickly. the turks have finally requested at least defensive patriot batteries, probably patriot batteries designed to deal with missiles rather than aircraft. should they be anti-aircraft patriots you could see an offensive capacity and capability. the rebels in syria are gaining force, maybe a little more coherens to their opposition and against the backdrop of all of this you have another -- yet another report of the prospects of agents being mixed with respect to chemical weapons capacity. i think this is the red line. it's a nightmarish scenario because it would force some sort
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of military intervention should these chemical weapons and their deployed either artillery shells or cones, the syrians have hundreds, sarin gas, maybe various nerve agents. the united states or nato would have to intercede eater from the air to de -- eater from the air to destroy these or special forces operations or worse, more troops on the ground to secure them. it's a nightmarish orwellian prospect and it would be an even more tragic phase in what has already become a nightmarish conflict in syria. >> what is the implications of what russia is doing? russia has been assad's biggest ally and chief supporter? do you think russia is really considering abandoning him? >> i think that russians have long been in touch with the syrian opposition. they understand assad cannot -- syria, first of all, their ally,
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even if assad survives, which is unlikely, is never going to emerge in the same coherent, cohesive state, that the nation that they had supported these many years. they're, i think, beginning to understand that their assets, their interests, their influence on the ground in syria, would be much better protected if they began to hedge their bets. whether or not they can work to actually facilitate assad's departure, or demise is another matter and whether they would be willing to work with us. the russians are tired, putin in particular, of watching the united states bring down its former clients, gadhafi in libya saddam and now the assad. so i think as a former great power, the russians read reality but i think will be cautious in wanting to create a kind of western or u.s. imposed solution in syria. >> thank you so much, aaron david miller. >> pleasure.
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>> and up next, fixing the debt. we will tea talk to former senator judd greg. that pink cas. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.
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on the budget front alan simpson and erskine bowles have joined with others from both parties pushing for a bigger solution to the nation's budget problems. judd greg is a co-chair on the campaign to fix the debt and joins me now. great to see you. thank you very much. >> thanks. nice to see you again. >> let's talk about some of the proposals that you all have put together. i referred to it earlier and ken conrad the budget chair you know so well was talking about it being a good step forward to move the debate along. we're talking about $1.8 trillion in new revenues. you're talking about budget cuts. you've got john, bob rubin, larry summers, and democrats, what are you trying to do with the big proposal? >> well, actually, andrea, that's not our proposal. that's john podesta's proposal. the fix the debt commission has
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not put a proposal on the table. what we're pushing for is a comprehensive agreement. we think the best template for that is the original simpson-bowles and including some health care reform. we haven't gone on to specifics yet because they think that might be counterproductive to this period where the president and speaker are trying to reach an agreement and we don't want to prejudice either side's position and we would like to just encourage them and help push them towards a more comprehensive agreement than just a small patchwork procedure. >> i apologize for confusing all of the proposals floating around. >> there are a lot out there and hard to keep track of them. >> why not be specific? isn't it time already when we're this close to the deadline to be specific? don't you have to prod them along by putting out specific ideas to get the sides to talk to each other? >> you know, i happened to think that we probably do need to be more specific, but there's -- this is a pretty big coalition and it includes myself, erskine
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and simpson and bowles. i happen to think the original simpson-bowles template is a viable template if you add health care into it and it had major tax reform, had a lot of the discretionary things that are already done in the agreement of 2011. i think it's a pathway to getting an agreement. you know this whole situation now comes down to two people, we understand that, everybody understands it's the president and the speaker of the house. they both made their opening presentations. they both have been sort of attacked and supported by their constituency groups or opposing groups. now is the time for those two gentlemen who are both very strong individuals and leaders, to step back from the public arena and get in the room and make an agreement. they have the outlines for it. let's get going. >> senator, they were at the white house christmas party and didn't even talk to each other
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last night in the same room about this issue. why couldn't they get in a corner and say i'll meet you at camp david or at andrews air force base, we were talking about this earlier, i don't understand why it isn't time already to sit down? you don't have to wait until the very, very last minute. let's talk about some of john boehner's plan, though. john boehner is not moving off of rates. he's stilling talking about loophole closures. do you believe you can accomplish what needs to be done on the revenue side and let's step plate democrats have to be more specific about us entitlement side. can you accomplish what you need on the revenue side just by flattening deductions and closing loop snoels. >> it depends on where you set the cap, but i think what's happening here is that the speaker has put on the table revenues, very specific number, $800 billion, a big number compared to where he was before. the president has said $1.6
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trillion. well, i think the obvious agreement here is 1.2. split the difference. how you get that extra 400 is an issue. there are a lot of ways to do it. revenues is not a complicated part of this situation. what is really more complex is the issue of how you get the entitlements controlled because there's really been no substantive ideas put forward on that get to the numbers that you really need to get to. now, what interestingly enough what the boehner proposal was, was a proposal that actually came from erskine bowles when he presented to the super committee about a year and a half ago, and if you look at the numbers in there, they do work. they actually do work to get to where you want to go. so i respect the speaker's having made a legitimate proposal and i understand where the president is. and what it comes down to is you just said, let's get them in a room and let's have them work it out. i mean they're leading the country. let's ask them to go forward and
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do it. and i don't think this public flailing going on now is actually all that constructive to be honest with you. >> senator judd gregg, thank you very much. >> thank you. and in today's amr moment, well rg3, he did it again this time against the defending champs, redskins quarterback robert griffin iii was a triple threat in the air, on the ground, and even fumbling the football, a rare mistake. it ended up in the arms of teammate josh morgan and put six points on the board. the redskins avenged the early season loss to new york with a 17-16 victory, completing a thr three-game sweep of divisional opponents. the battle for the belt way is around the corner. ravens arriving at fedex field on sunday. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no.
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if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. is bigger than we think ... sometimelike the flu.fer from with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold? there's something that works differently than over-the-counter remedies. prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. so don't wait. call your doctor right away. tamiflu is prescription medicine for treating the flu in adults and children one year and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if you're pregnant, nursing. have serious health conditions, or take other medicines. if you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. children and adolescents in particular may be at an
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increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. the most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. the flu comes on fast, so ask your doctor about tamiflu. prescription for flu.
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which political story will make headlines in 24 hours. chris, you're looking at the tryouts perhaps for 2016.
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you have the jack kemp forum tonight and both marco rubio and paul ryan are speakers. >> right. marco rubio is honored tonight. paul ryan was the honoree last year. yes, andrea. these are two guys without question are going to be in that 2016 presidential race barring some sort of unforeseen circumstance. they're both positioning themselves to lead the party. i'm interested to see what they talk about, because i think both of them -- paul ryan is talking about poverty. marco rubio is talking about education so not two typical what we would traditional republican issues, taxes and those sorts of things. this is an attempt by both men, i think, and a chance for both men to expand on what it means to be a member of the republican party and to try to broaden an appeal we saw in the 2012 election is just not broad enough particularly among
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hispanics. they are problems with women and young people. rubio is 41 and ryan is 42 years old who are leading a youth movement that the party hopes will change that appeal, correct their demographic problems and it starts even though the election is a month old, it starts today. >> i would put bobby jindal in that group as well. >> absolutely. >> we have chris christie here today testifying in congress about aid for victims of superstorm sandy. clearly, he's got an interest in 2016, and then there's jeb bush. aa number of the people you just mentioned have very interesting ideas about immigration and about expanding the universe of the party. not all of them but certainly bobby jindal and jeb bush and marco rubio. >> immigration and education are the two places you'll see these wan-to-be future leaders break from it. >> that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell
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reports." tomorrow on the show maria cantwell and roger altman joining us. follow us online and on twitter @mitchellreports. hi, tamron. >> grae to see you. in the next hour we follow developing news. president obama has new words of speaker boehner and the republicans in his first tv interview since the election and since the fiscal cliff stalemate started. no deal until republicans drop the opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthy. that's the president's message. we'll play the interview for you, parts of it, and also hear from democratic congressman adam schiff. from the president shooting down speaker boehner proposal to now conservative groups going aafter him, who are boehner's allies at this point. where is governor jan brewer. the mystery about the out of state business trip and why his own spokesperson says he can't
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disclose where she is. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger.
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